Pauline Hanson and Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON) represent the worst elements in Australian Society.
Pauline Hanson and her party represent the worst elements in Australian Society, PHON represents the fearful and angry white, mostly middle-class voter who since LNP victory in 2013, has suffered through years of Abbott-Turnbull-lead fear-porn, making them even more fearful, angry and eminently controllable.
The last Election, a Double Dissolution election, was where LNP lost it's foothold on the electorate and which ushered in the rise of minor parties like Pauline Hanson and her party of LNP supporting stooges back into Australian politics. In the lead-up to the election Pauline Hanson enjoyed a lot of time on the airwaves as the right-wing Australian Murdoch dominated media- in the country with the most concentrated media in the world- beat their drum on her behalf. Her many media appearances, also added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the PHON coffers and served the Deep State even further by indulging people's hysteria in reaction to the 'war on terror' anti-Islamic fear-porn.
Those on the right in Australia (particularly the IPA, Murdoch and his cronies) want people to be fearful because when people are fearful they vote conservative, and this principle was again demonstrated in the Double Dissolution Election in 2016 with the election of a right-wing LNP-IPA Coalition government, and the success in the polls of right-wing parties and individuals like PHON, it was just a shame for PM Turnbull, that his LNP Coalition lost a significant proportion of it's grip on the Australian electorate to minor parties like PHON necessitating deals to be made with these minor parties. Hanson and those of her ilk appeal to those in Australia who are nostalgic for the halcyon days of an Australia that has never existed except in the perverse dark fantasies of those on the far right.
Pauline Hanson's recent statements that autistic children should be removed from mainstream classrooms because they hold their classmates back earlier this week didn't surprise me one bit, it just added grist to the mill that she represents a nasty, bigoted and damaging viewpoint bent on making Australian society more divided, hysterical, living in fear, and reactionary: Thereby making the electorate more controllable and likely acquiesce to a further erosion of personal rights and liberties which PHON and the LNP seem keen to deliver.
I see a real irony here. Australian society is a very bigotted scene. However it is not Pauline who presents the most bigotted views. Rather it is those who preach from their self righteous, politically correct, ivory towers about how their views on any given subject are correct and anybody who presents a differing view is condemned as some sort of depraved moron who must be mocked with venom and shut down promtly.
This time Pauline has been crucified by many media commentators for suggesting that children may be served better at school if those who are autistic or require special attention were to spend some learning time in separate rooms with special teachers. However instead of treating such a suggestion with any respect, her critics have taken their default position of attacking her as a retrograde with contempt.
In fact however, she has a valid point that is backed by many parents and teachers. The point deserves at least some mature concideration without all the hatred and emotional hyperbole.
How bad is it really to suggest that children with different needs may have those needs more effectively met with some form of separation from the mainstream students?
Despite the militancy of those who support the fantastic belief in total inclusion without due distiction between normal and autistic kids, the reality in the class room is often not so fluffy. (As an aside, the use of the word 'normal' is to be avoided as it may be deemed offensive by insinuating that autistic children are not normal. However is that not the whole point? Aren't autistic and special needs children in some way abnormal? How should children without a disorder be referred to if not as normal? They don't even get a label. A forgotten majority in the classroom.)
I am the father of seven normal kids. Four of them in primary school. A number of years ago an autistic child started attending their school. It was soon obvious that he could not integrate into the classroom environment without causing constant disruption and upheaval. The regular 'meltdowns' and disruptions to the classroom meant that he often spent time removed from the class under special supervision of the principal. The upheaval was so great that a number of parents removed their children from the school. It is hard to see how the educational needs of any of the students were properly met in this attempt at inclusive integrated learning.
Despite this, in the minds of many outspoken biggotted social commentators in this community, the only acceptable opinion a person is permitted to have is one that is in line with their own inclusive idealism. Anybody who dares to publically voice any other persective will soon come under heavy fire for being so non-conformist. So too is the case for many other issues that Pauline has had the guts to address publically by voicing the 'wrong' opinion.
You make some interesting points, but Pauline doesn't have the 'wrong opinion', she has a dangerous one, and she enables people to be their worst by pandering to their fear of difference. It is divide and conquer 101 which is in their arsenal of weapons.
How did Trump become president?
Why is Brexit happening?
How has one nation gained seats?
The right has risen because the left has forced them to.
The more you push someone the harder they will push back.
Not everyone has the same views and they have been left behind and are now starting to catch up
Yes this is true but it is more than that, the ALP/LNP-IPA really are different brands with the same flavor, aided and abetted by corrupt Murdoch-based media manipulating the "great unwashed" to serve the interests of the global Fourth Reich/Cabal. Those on both sides are being manipulated. Divide and conquer, as always with them.
@hooplevonwinkle makes a good point. The rise of divisive far-right politics can largely be put down to the decline in economic prospects for middle and working class people in developed nations. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis is a great read re: this phenomena in the the US.
(wikipedia.com)
... In MMT circles Labor are known as NeoLiberal-Lite :P
ALP/LNP-IPA, different brand, same flavor, ALP is definitely Neoliberal lite and parties like PHON are extreme to say the least...
She's called for the internment of Muslims and the segregation of disabled kids ... it's getting harder to argue she's not a full blown Nazi.
You are absolutely right, as are the rest of them...especially PM Turnbull who is suspiciously silent on this matter...
I have a soft spot for Mal. He's always been a defender of the ABC, proponent of a working NBN and doing something about climate change. Problem now, is his position of power depends on his ability to appease the many nutjobs in his party ... so we've seen the real Turbull go into hiding.
... Either way, this Liberal government is miles better than the last one!
The Aussies turned their guns over to their govt. without a fight so they fully deserve whatever is done to them.
Why choose one version of authoritarianism over another?
It's time for a global Bill of Rights http://www.freekentucky.com/no-sacred-cows-or-a-new-global-bill-of-rights/
We can send the sacred, or scared, cows to Australia
I'm from the demographic she preaches against, but I don't blame her, I don't agree with her, but I respect a person who can stand behind what they say, Can't you?
a lot of it maybe considered ignorant rhetoric, but most of the underlying issues are real and I don't blame them for feeling voiceless.
I'm a third world boy, born and raised in the west, I'm very lucky, but I grew up on welfare, while my immigrant father was in jail for the wacky backy, it's fucked up, I don't blame anyone getting the shits about that
don't hate me for this line but, don't you prefer your child was in a small classroom with a lot of attention? I was in a public school and had a terrible time trying to learn, there were alot of kids that were kind of ADHD at the time and used up alot of resources, I've seen ladies leave the room crying the kids were so difficult.
maybe she doesnt understand Autism, but there is a part of her argument we can acccept, start a dialogue with this "wing" and help set us all free from media manipulation
similar to the first comment, I see it as a phenomenon that's kind of occuring everywhere, just a pretty hectic time to be alive xD